Effective Strategies for Managing Work-Related Stress and Preventing Burnout
You love your job. You do, but lately you haven’t been sleeping and you just can’t seem to summon the old feelings of excitement and passion for your job that used to come so easily.
What is going on?
You could be suffering from burnout, a consequence of poor stress management and just one of the many challenges for professionals in today’s new digital age.
“It’s just stress.”
That’s a common response for these feelings, but people often mistake stress for burnout.
While stress is usually fleeting, coming and going with a particular project or time of year, burnout refers to a more long-term condition that lingers and grows over time.
Burnout can be marked by:
- Negative attitude toward work
- Low energy and interest during work
- Feelings of dread and anxiety about being at work, reluctant to go and anxious to leave
- Feeling empty, worthless at home and/or at work
A common source of burnout can be no autonomy in the workplace, creating feelings of helplessness. You feel like you’re stuck in a mindless cycle with no marked movement or growth. The proverbial slump, if you will.
If left untreated, burnout can take a significant toll on your body, with Mayo Clinic citing cases of insomnia, substance abuse, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
Recognizing the Signs: Are You Experiencing Burnout?
But, in order to effectively combat those stirrings of burnout, it’s important to first understand the source of your burnout in order to fight it.
That begins with your level of self-efficacy.
Psychology Today defines self-efficacy as “the belief in your own ability to accomplish (and exercise control over) personally meaningful goals and tasks.”
The stronger your self-efficacy, the greater your ability to properly channel stress and handle high-pressure situations.
Building Self-Efficacy: The Key to Combating Burnout
There are many ways to combat work-related stress and burnout, and that begins with yourself.
At Taylor White Counseling, Coaching and Consulting, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite tips to manage stress and avoid burnout in your professional career:
Practical Tips to Avoid Burnout and Manage Stress
That begins with solo time each day – whether it’s spent in reflection, meditation, journaling, or even light exercise. Fill this time with something positive and relaxing that you do for yourself and by yourself to unwind after the workday. This is incredibly important in this digital age. You don’t have to return that email or make that call unless it absolutely, truly, 100% actually is an emergency.
- Find a healthy support system.
Find a networking group of other management professionals who can empathize with higher-level issues and problems. It’s especially convenient if you’re all in the same industry, but more high-profile leaders may appreciate the anonymity of separate employers.
- Focus on what is within your control.
Combat those feelings of lack of control by focusing on what you can control. Perhaps you cannot control your office hours, but you can control how you manage your office time. Maybe you have to constantly cover for a lackluster superior but think about the experience and education you are gaining on the company dime. Retraining your brain to think positively makes a HUGE difference.
The Importance of Communication in Reducing Stress
Most times, things can be resolved by a simple conversation. If something is large enough to become a recurring issue that causes you mental and emotional strain, it needs to be addressed. Take the time to thoroughly and factually prepare your case, stating it without emotion. Define your job responsibilities and discuss your goals for both short-term and long-term.
Achieving Balance: Navigating the Path to Success Without Burnout
Contrary to public thought, you CAN have it all.
You just have to be strategic in how you navigate the path to success, and we can help. Taylor White Counseling, Coaching and Consulting has years of experience helping professionals like you avoid burnout and get back to what’s really important in life.
Life is too short to be unhappy.
Work better, and you will work smarter.
